WaystoCap

Overview

WaystoCap began as a cross-border B2B marketplace for African importers and exporters. Four founders combined buyer and supplier discovery with verification, payments, insurance, finance, and trade support. The company joined Y Combinator in 2017, raised a $3 million seed round, expanded across several African markets, then shifted in 2020 to local retailer procurement.^[1]

The pivot exposed the central tension in the original plan. Trade looked continental from a software screen, but trust, logistics, credit, and regulation had to be rebuilt inside each corridor. Local commerce produced faster growth, yet it also made WaystoCap resemble a country-by-country distributor. MaxAB bought the company in 2021 to enter Morocco; the price was not disclosed.^[2]

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Founding Story

WaystoCap grew out of Niama El Bassunie's trading apprenticeship. She worked at PwC in London, then helped source used cooking oil for a proposed biodiesel taxi business in 2010. The Arab Spring disrupted that supply plan. In November 2011, she traveled to Conakry for what was supposed to be four days and stayed close to eight months, working on projects tied to wrecked ships and scrap metal. She met Anis Abdeddine and Mehdi Daoui while seeking finance for one of those projects. The two men already knew each other from school and work.^[3]

That experience sharpened the product insight. Small African businesses could see demand beyond their borders, but opaque counterparties and thin financial infrastructure made each transaction risky. In a 2019 founder spotlight, El Bassunie said: "Transparency is key in international trade, and it is something that SMBs on the continent do not enjoy." She connected that gap to a marketplace where firms could find products and reach international commerce.^[4]

The first version was deliberately crude. El Bassunie told MENAbytes: "I remember our first website, which I built, we went to the local supermarket to buy food products, took pictures on my mobile and listed them on our site." The founders recruited Moroccan vendors, then found buyers through their existing network. They bootstrapped for 18 months and said the operation was cash-flow positive before seeking capital for expansion.^[5]

The public chronology is untidy. MENAbytes called the company a 2014 founding; TechCrunch's acquisition history used 2015; YC and 500 Global use 2016. The evidence supports a formation window rather than an exact incorporation date. Trading activity came first, the marketplace emerged over repeated tests, and the formal startup identity followed. The four-person founding group eventually comprised El Bassunie, Abdeddine, Daoui, and technical co-founder Aziz Jaouhari Tissafi.

Timeline

• 2010–2011: El Bassunie begins trading and spends close to eight months in Conakry after a planned four-day visit.
• 2014–2016: The trading operation becomes WaystoCap; public sources disagree on the exact founding year.
• Winter 2017: WaystoCap becomes the first Moroccan startup in Y Combinator.
• June 2017: The company announces a $3 million seed round after processing $3.1 million in first-quarter transaction volume.^[6]
• 2017–2019: The marketplace expands from Morocco into markets including Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Algeria.
• 2020: WaystoCap pivots from cross-border trade to local retailer marketplaces in Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Togo.
• August 2021: MaxAB acquires WaystoCap for an undisclosed amount; El Bassunie becomes managing director of MaxAB Morocco.
• 2022: Morocco accounts for about 10% of MaxAB's business.^[7]
• 2024: MaxAB and Wasoko complete an all-stock merger.